CD Reviews

Junior Boys

This Is Goodbye | Domino

By ADAM MOERDER | September 11, 2006

3.5 Stars

Two years after Last Exit seduced the pants off the indie electronic world, these two Canadian lotharios return with an offer that could be even more tantalizing. In a world where bands hedge their dance propensities with rock accouterments, Junior Boys lavish Euro beats and velvety synths on So This Is Goodbye with no apparent concern that fey bedroom-pop insults might be lobbed their way. And whereas Last Exit oozed with between-the-sheets anticipation, Goodbye faces the day-after walk of shame. Opener “Double Shadow” beckons with its silky, sultry rhythm yet admits to a lonesome incompleteness in its “You’re my double shadow.” Desperation boils over on the first single, “In the Morning,” as frenetic synths pelt a restless bass line, with Andi Tomi’s excitable breathless vocals yielding to the more downcast second half the title hints at. Yet the title track, the sad-sack ballad “When No One Cares,” and “FM” cut the narrator’s losses with style, the tender synths consoling and reminding us that tomorrow brings another night of opportunity. You can’t ask for much more from a sophomore album.